Corner Gas
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Image:Corner Gas DVD.jpg Canadian DVD release of Corner Gas' first season. Rear, left to right: Janet Wright, Eric Peterson, Fred Ewanuick, Gabrielle Miller, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Nancy Robertson, Lorne Cardinal. Front: Brent Butt. Corner Gas is a Canadian situation comedy which has aired on CTV and The Comedy Network since 2004. Deriving its name from the roadside gas station located in the fictional town of Dog River, the series revolves around life in small-town Saskatchewan. It has been compared to Seinfeld for its dry sense of humour and its plots that are "about nothing", and to Scrubs for its use of surreal escapism through characters' thoughts.
OverviewCorner Gas is the only gas station for 60 kilometres in any direction (according to the episode "The Taxman"). Brent Leroy is the proprietor of the station and Wanda works at the station's convenience store as a retail assistant. A nearby coffee shop (The Ruby) is owned by Lacey Burrows. Dog River also has a newspaper, The Dog River Howler, usually just called The Howler, which almost everybody has contributed to at one point or another. The series was created by Canadian comedian Brent Butt who came up with the idea for the series after wondering what his life would be like if he hadn't pursued stand-up comedy. (He would still be in a small town in Saskatchewan pumping gas.) With the exception of the first season finale and second season premiere episodes, which are linked, most other Corner Gas episodes are standalone storylines that can be viewed in virtually any order. The first episode of Corner Gas aired on January 22, 2004 and attracted 1.2 million viewers. It became an instant hit and has never gone below the million-viewer mark since. The first season consisted of 13 episodes. Less than two months after the first episode aired, CTV renewed it for a second season of 18 episodes. The first season was released on DVD in Canada on October 19, 2004 (the first weekly CTV series to be released in the format). In keeping with the spirit of the series, each DVD set included a coupon good for a free coffee at Petro-Canada service stations. The second season was released on DVD on September 27, 2005. The series is filmed at Canada/Saskatchewan Production Studios in Regina, Saskatchewan and on location in Regina, Saskatchewan and Rouleau, Saskatchewan. It is produced by Prairie Pants Productions in association with CTV. In late September 2004, to promote the start of the second season, the cast members of Corner Gas travelled to cities across Canada where they pumped gas at local service stations for the day (the fuel being provided to motorists free of charge). By the halfway point of the promotion more than 40,000 litres of free gasoline had been pumped. Brent's main co-writer is comedian and former 22 Minutes writer Mark Farrell. CharactersMain Cast
Recurring Characters
The surnames of all Dog River residents (with the exception of Fitzy) are names of small towns in Saskatchewan. Notable guest stars
Dog RiverDog River has a population of 450. The exact location of the town in Saskatchewan has yet to be established, however, according to the Corner Gas tagline, it is at least 40 kilometres from the nearest town, but still within a relatively short drive to Regina. It is stated in the episode "The Taxman" that Corner Gas is the only gas station for 60 kilometres in any direction, which means either that the 40 kilometres value is inaccurate, or that the towns less that 60 kilometres from Dog River do not have gas stations. Series creator Brent Butt has said the town lies somewhere between Regina and Saskatoon; these two cities are 257 kilometres apart, so this fact does not contradict anything said on the series. In fact, the term "The City" has been used at various times in the series to refer to either Regina or Saskatoon. The second season episode, "Fun Run", has one character drive to Weyburn for a lark, suggesting Dog River is probably closer to Regina than it is to Saskatoon. The town has its own newspaper, the Howler, and only one gas station, Corner Gas. The Ruby Café is the only real restaurant in the town, though residents also enjoy going to the pub in the local hotel. The town also has its own miniature golf course, and is one of the relatively few towns in Saskatchewan to still have a grain elevator, although plans (later abandoned) were made to demolish it during the first season. A police force consisting of two officers keeps the peace in Dog River, though most of the time their duties consist of chasing vermin away from farms and using their radar guns to clock the flying speed of sparrows (which can apparently do 60 km/h). The residents of Dog River have a pathological dislike of the residents of Wullerton, a neighbouring town, to the point that they spit whenever the rival town is mentioned (they are so used to it they sometimes don't realize it when they spit). The reason for this has yet to be explained. (Publicity for the second season indicated that the season finale would reveal the reason for the spitting, however the episode as broadcast did not actually do so.) The town's name is an homage to series creator Brent Butt's hometown of Tisdale, Saskatchewan through which the Doghide River flows. However, in the show itself, the second season episode "Rock On!" revealed that the town was named after a great uncle of Lacey's who drowned a dozen dogs in the river. She discovered this trivia while researching information for a history plaque. In order to play down this unsavoury branch of her family tree, Lacey instead used a story that Officer Karen made up — that pioneers somehow got hold of a hot air balloon, got an aerial view of the town site, and noticed that the creek formed a shape similar to that of a dog. A Regina tour operator regularly takes busloads of tourists to Rouleau to visit "Dog River". Visitors can tour the on-location sets of Corner Gas, including the service station. Many components of Dog River are in fact real attributes of Rouleau, notably the combined liquor and insurance store. Episode guideSeason 1 (2004)
Season 2 (2004-2005)
Season 3 (2005-2006)
Notes
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